Bentley Systems Descartes V8i Enhances 3D Infrastructure Modeling

HOUSTON,
16 April 2012 - At SPAR International 2012, Bentley Systems Inc. released
Bentley Descartes V8i
(SELECTseries 3), 3D modeling that combines point clouds, raster imagery,
and geometry. The resulting models expand the utility of point clouds by
supporting hybrid design workflows that deliver “as-operated” 3D models to
serve the operations and maintenance needs of owner-operators. By enabling
innovative “hypermodeling” – the intuitive navigation of as-operated models
in 3D context that includes engineering information in any form – Bentley
is committed to enhancing infrastructure safety and resilience while increasing
owner-operators’ returns on their engineering investments.

Bentley
set the stage for this innovation by incorporating scalable terrain models
(STMs) and, soon after, point clouds as fundamental data types across its
information modeling applications and engineering information management
services. It first introduced point clouds into its portfolio by embedding the
high-performance Vortex engine into MicroStation, and more recently
acquired Pointools Ltd, the leading hardware-neutral provider of
point-cloud software.

Through
its release of Bentley Descartes V8i
(SELECTseries 3), Bentley launches an information modeling product for advanced
point-cloud processing – and the manipulation of STMs – that addresses
virtually all of the 3D image processing needs of infrastructure
professionals. With this product, project teams can take greater advantage of
point clouds in engineering workflows for all categories of infrastructure.
Moreover, they’ll be able to work with any type of point-cloud data, including
aerial and terrestrial LiDAR and ground-penetrating radar.

Coming
soon is a new offering from Bentley that overcomes the intractable scale of
point clouds that has long limited their versatility in information modeling
workflows. Called ProjectWise Point-cloud Services, this innovation
streams on demand to Bentley applications only the portion of a point cloud
being viewed or queried, facilitating the collaborative work sharing and
unlocking the value of terabytes of point-cloud data.

The
combination of point-cloud viewing, processing, and management across Bentley
products – including MicroStation, Bentley Descartes, Bentley Pointools,
and ProjectWise – delivers a powerful, comprehensive, and productive
engineering software for the utilization of point-cloud data throughout the
infrastructure lifecycle. Bentley also continues to release products based on
its Pointools technology, including Bentley Pointools for stand-alone
workflows and two iWare apps available at no charge: Bentley Pointools
View and Bentley Pointools PODcreator.

“Years ago, our Bentley Descartes product
enabled a breakthrough for 2D modeling that empowered our users to combine
imagery with geometry conveniently and in real time facilitated by Bentley’s
innovative warping technology,” said Richard Zambuni, Bentley global marketing
director. “The new Bentley Descartes achieves the equivalent breakthrough
for 3D information modeling, empowering our users to quickly manipulate
a STM and texture it with orthoimagery to achieve a highly accurate
topography of the terrain. They can do the same with a 3D city model,
combining imagery and geometric models to achieve the engineering accuracy and
rigor that infrastructure professionals demand.”

He
continued, “And now for point clouds, the new version of Bentley Descartes
uniquely combines this fundamental data type with raster imagery and geometry
in 3D information models through processing capabilities such as
point-cloud classification editing; the draping and snapping of vector elements
to a point cloud; a new 'flashlight' feature that lets users dynamically
visualize surfaces in the point cloud for easier navigation and comprehension;
a smart snap feature that automates the time-consuming task of finding the
highest, lowest, or median point along a user-defined path; and the ability to
export in LAS and POD file formats for reuse in other applications. All of
these enhancements make the use of point clouds a lot more intuitive and
productive, empowering GIS and CAD professionals, surveyors, urban planners,
and engineers to readily employ hybrid models in the creation of
better-performing, intelligent infrastructure.”

Commenting
on the new release of Bentley Descartes V8i,
Matthew McCarter, CAD technician, Capital Programmes Directorate, London
Underground, said, “As a user of point-cloud data in various CAD packages for
over 12 years, I am most impressed with the point-cloud processing tools in
Bentley Descartes. I look forward to using the cross sectioning, ‘flashlight,’ and
other functionality for extracting geometry to further improve the efficiency
of London Underground’s Land Survey Team.”
Stephane Poitras,
director of Information Resources, Ville de Saguenay, Quebec, Canada, said,
“The City of Saguenay encompasses approximately 1136 square kilometers, and we
have always had issues trying to create terrain models covering our entire
territory. With the new scalable terrain model technology shipping with Bentley
Descartes V8i
(SELECTseries 3), this problem is solved. We have created a STM, draped more
than 1.5 gigabytes of raster imagery on top of the terrain, and have seen an
amazing display performance.”

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